The dominant is scale degree 5 of a key: the pitch a perfect fifth above the tonic, and the bearer of the dominant function — the point of greatest harmonic tension in a tonal system, whose resolution back to the tonic is the basic engine of tonal motion. Parameters: (1) intervallic status — the dominant is the fifth degree of the key's scale, a perfect fifth above the tonic (in C major, G); (2) functional role — it is the point of greatest tension, the degree and chord that pull back to the tonic, the target of cadential motion and the source of the dominant–tonic pull that organizes phrase structure; (3) relational definition — the dominant is defined relative to the key and tonic (the dominant of C major is G), and reciprocally fixes the key's tension structure, so the two constitute each other the way tonic and key do. Persistence mechanism: codified in Western tonal and harmonic theory, taught in music-theory and ear-training curricula (functional harmony; Roman-numeral analysis, where V denotes the dominant), reproduced in composition and analysis practice (cadential analysis, the tonic–dominant alternation as the cell of tonal motion), and maintained through the conventions of tonal notation. It is distinguished from the tonic (scale degree 1 — the point of REST to which the dominant resolves, not the point of tension), from a bare pitch (any point on the pitch axis; the dominant is a pitch bearing a specific functional role), and from the dominant chord (the triad built on the fifth degree — a chord built ON the dominant, not the degree and function itself). [formal: dominantis | substrate: mind | horizon: centuries | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
dominant
The dominant is scale degree 5 of a key: the pitch a perfect fifth above the tonic, and the bearer of the dominant function — the point of greatest harmonic tension in a tonal system, whose resolution back to the tonic is the basic engine…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made musical construct: scale degree 5 of a key — the pitch a fifth above the tonic that bears the dominant function, the point of greatest harmonic tension whose resolution back to the tonic is the engine of tonal motion. Built to persist in Western tonal practice and theory as the pivot of cadential motion.
Names and aliases
- dominanten · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- tonicDEPENDS_ON →
Law 8b removal test, grounded in the source's own defined sense: the dominant is carved as 'scale degree 5 of a key: the pitch a perfect fifth above the tonic, the bearer of the dominant function — the point of greatest harmonic tension whose resolution back to the tonic is the basic engine of tonal motion'. Its function is defined relationally to the tonic: it is the pull back to the tonic that makes it the dominant (its functional role is the target of cadential motion toward the tonic). Remove the tonic construct now and the dominant stops operating as a dominant: its fifth-degree status is defined relative to the key's tonic, the 'resolution back to the tonic' that constitutes its function loses its target, and the construct collapses to a bare pitch a fifth above an arbitrary center — a pitch, not a function. Not a sayability claim: the dominant's identity (G as the dominant of C) is fixed by the tonic, and functional analysis — the mechanism by which the dominant persists — names dominants by their relation to the tonic. Pinned sense (Law 11d): dominant as the functional fifth degree per the source's definition. Not DERIVED_FROM: this is a present-tense functional dependency (the dominant operates toward the tonic now), not a historical origin.
- scale-degreeINSTANCE_OF →
The dominant is a specific kind of scale-degree: the fifth ordinal slot of the scale, functionally designated. The source's accepted definition carves it as 'scale degree 5 of the key: the pitch a perfect fifth above the tonic, and the bearer of the dominant function' — a scale-degree with its ordinal fixed at 5 and its function named. scale-degree is the NEAREST accepted kind (Law 11e): no intermediate rung (fifth-degree, functional-degree) exists on the map; musical-scale is the container of degrees, not a kind a degree is an instance of; tonic is the anchor degree, not a kind. A competent speaker calls the dominant 'a scale degree — the fifth one'. Specific to general (Law 9); pinned sense (Law 11d): the functional fifth degree per the source's own definition.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Sep 25, 2026, 11:50 PM UTC
- Content hash
- 8e9e28eb90ccd5ceea2f714cc8fea45d75c07202848a1104c10148311224c907